The 10th Delhi State Conference of CPI (ML) was held on 25-26 July 2015 in the MCD Community Hall, Azadpur, Delhi.
The Conference began with the hoisting of the red flag by veteran Comrade Mulk Raj.
CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya inaugurated the Conference. In his inaugural address, he observed that Delhi has been the axis of political tumult in the past few years, as an axis of several movements and the axis of regime change. The Modi Government at the Centre is attacking democratic rights of people, and the AAP Government has exposed itself as having very superficial differences with other ruling class parties. Our party activists were at the forefront of the movements that Delhi witnessed, and it is important now to strengthen the party organisation and carry forward the movements on the streets.
125 delegates attended the conference and participated in the deliberations on the report that was presented by the outgoing Delhi Secretary Sanjay Sharma. The document carried reporting of the work of the party and various mass organisations in the state.
Uttarakhand State Secretary Rajendra Pratholi, AICCTU General Secretary Rajiv Dimri, Politburo member Prabhat Kumar, Chandigarh Secretary Kanwaljeet, as well as Girija Pathak from the Party Central Office, attended the Conference as guests. Comrade Girija addressed the Conference to share some observations and suggestions, while Comrade Kanwaljeet shared the Chandigarh experience of party building in an urban context.
The Conference elected a 29 member state committee with Ravi Rai as the State Secretary. Comrade Swapan Mukherjee was the central observer for the Conference. The Conference adopted several resolutions: demanding independent probe into Vyapam and Lalitgate scams; resolving to resist the Modi Government’s offensive on human rights activists like Teesta Setalvad and its bid to weaken the cases of terrorism in which groups close to the RSS are implicated; opposing anti-worker changes proposed in labour laws and land grab ordinance, and supporting the call for all-India General Strike on 2 September; and condemning communal violence in Atali and attempts to foment communal tension in Delhi. The resolutions also condemned the attempts of the Delhi LG to set himself up as an agent of the Centre and parallel power centre. Condemning the heinous incident of public murder of a young girl in Anand Parvat, Delhi and the Delhi Police’s apathy, the Conference reminded that Kejriwal today was peddling the same excuse as Sheila Dixit before him – blaming lack of women’s safety on the Delhi Government’s lack of control over Delhi Police. The Conference declared that LG and Delhi CM both wanted to have the police in their respective pockets, while the Delhi Police Commissioner wanted the police to have no accountability whatsoever. Instead, the people’s demand must be for police reforms to make the police accountable to the Constitutional rights and liberties of people. In this context, the Conference also sought an SIT into the Batla House fake encounter, on the same lines as the SIT that has been set up in the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom. The Conference also demanded commutation of the death penalty for Yakub Memon. The Conference, while appreciating the special Delhi Assembly Session on women’s safety, said that the Delhi Government was reducing the question of women’s freedom and safety to CCTV cameras and policing. The Conference demanded measures from the Government to guarantee economic rights of women, as well as crisis centres and legal aid for women facing domestic and sexual violence; creches for slum children; and public toilets for women. The Conference also demanded that the Delhi Government act on the Justice Garg Committee report that had found AAP MLA Somnath Bharti guilty for the violent raid on African women at Khidki village. The Conference condemned incidents of communal, caste, racial and ethnic discrimination by landlords, and demanded legislation to curb such discrimination as well as arbitrary rents by Delhi landlords. Expressing concern over the dangerous levels of pollution in Delhi, the Conference condemned the decision of the AAP Government to scrap the BRT bus corridors under pressure from the elite 20% of car-users. The Conference resolved to agitate against the AAP Government’s failure to keep its promises to make contract workers permanent, and to implement minimum wage laws strictly, and to ensure clean and dignified housing as a right of every single Delhi citizen. The Conference condemned the CBCS policy of the Central Government that threatens to destroy the autonomy and quality of India’s universities.
The Conference concluded with the resolve to expand and strengthen the party organisation in Delhi and prepare the party to rise up to the political challenges of the day in keeping with the guidelines of Lucknow Workshop.
